After learning emacs "several" times, (finding that each time I quickly forgot most of the finger and mind stretching command combinations), the vim plug-in existence prompted me to give vim a try. The advantage of an explicit insert-state is that it frees up simple keypresses to very quickly navigate around in the text, pop into insert mode (in several ways that assist you with the type of edit you are intending, e.g. character, word, word ending, changes), then zip out of the insert-state and navigate to your next spot you wish to inspect/edit.
I tend to try and come up with visually based models of things like this, so for this I imagine a piece of plastic that overlies the text when not in insert mode. With the plastic 'on', all the keys that would normally type text are available to navigate, invoke commands, etc. Going to insert mode opens a window in the plastic from the cursor to the end of line, (non-character producing keys can change where this window is located, e.g. arrow keys and enter). Anyway, with an eye to facilitating vi(m), I've seen implementation, that changed the background text to indicate when you were or weren't in insert mode. Vi(m) also use various cursors to signal different state, e.g. block cursor when in command mode, bar cursor when in insert mode. I know that TK can do block or bar cursors, I don't know about some of the others. Tom --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
